Month: July 2014

Things are moving fast in Hoggland. We are in the process of closing on our first home and it is both very simple of a process but at the same time its very complicated– somewhat unnecessarily so, but they do seem to make it seem like it was the people’s fault the banks got into the mess that they did some years ago– they need all these forms and there are all these questions— where did this money come from, why did these people pay you in cash, why were you saving cash outside of a bank– its all so silly in the grand scale of things, but people have to do what they need to in order for us to get permission to pay a bank for the next 30 years and at the end of the day, what protects the consumer from the banks?

Regardless, I think that its a good idea to buy, even though it seems crazy expensive and I could laugh/cry if I think of the size of the place I was spending this kind of money somewhere else, but land value is a funny thing– the odds are pretty good that what will buying will just increase in value– one thing is for sure– rent will certainly increase over the years and I like the idea of having a place that I am free to do what I may. Even if it does seem to cost us every cent we will earn for a number of years.

I never thought I would be interested in being a homeowner, but I think children turns that rather quickly– giving your family a place where they can spend their formative years– in a consistent sense is important to me– part of what makes me is the way that we moved around so much, so that culture might be important, the perspective of different people, but I think I given the choice, I would have probably preferred one place and then been set free in the world, but who knows. It is usually the case with people I meet that have only lived in one place their whole life have more of an altered perspective than those who have traveled. That being said tho– most of the experience with place comes later in life– going away to college, getting that first job in a different city, the ability to know that you can survive in a city on your own is a rewarding thing– not to be taken for granted. Children almost beg for consistency, especially during those developing and early childhood years.

Owning a property doesn’t necessarily tie you down either– it just puts the roots in the community I want to live in while we are here. There appears to be a trend here with housing which indicates that investing is a good idea and if we decide to go to Germany for a couple years, we could easily rent the place out and head out. Which I could see us doing before the kids get settled in school.

When I say kids, there it is. Number 2 comes just after number 1 turns 3. That is going to be interesting. Elliott is a special kid– such a great demeanor to him– and I think pretty smart for his young age– but I think children now have a lot of things at their fingers that we didn’t have– for example, he knows how to find his own shows on this device I am typing on and the iPad and the iPhone– its pretty interesting to see him do it– at 2.5 years– it wasn’t a skill we taught him, but we are on these things a lot– and it does work to keep him calm at times when there is adult talking to be done. I used to make fun of parents that would bust out the phone to entertain their kids, shaking my head and saying to myself that there was no way I was going to let my kid get away with that. But here I am today, eating crow as usual.

The summer has been super fun and busy with the preggers wife and the son — it started with a great visit from my in-laws who spent three weeks with us and it was good to take some time off and enjoy it with them. Soon after they left, we were back on the housing hunt, thinking we wouldn’t be purchasing a piece of property until late in the summer at the earliest, then one day when we were just planning to look at a couple of places in the market to see what was out there, we stumbled upon the kind of thing we were looking for.

–Not a flipped house. Buying a house that someone just bought and flipped seems cheeseball to me. Buying a new remodel means you have to accept everything that people did to that house and every house we looked at– we had to gulp at a lot of the things that people did– from the odd sinks to the fake tiling… it reminded me bad Russian stuff you would see in China– No Thanks!

–Updates over the years is fine, just not dreadfully outdated or just shipped from Home Depot.

–Big Yard. This was huge and this is disappearing with the amount of zero lot housing being developed here. I wanted something that we could make into our own at this point– I have been gardening a lot lately and its something I enjoy– as a hobby. I also think it would be cool to plant a tree when the next boy is born– but with my luck, it would die by winter if we planted in October.

So, lots of things to consider as we throw ourselves into this next chapter– exciting, scary and amazing.

Here are some pictures, because no one likes stories without pictures…

One of the three rooms for the kids.Another one of the smaller bedroomsWalk in closet……an example of what needs renovating… The guest bathroom– needs a makeover– but it is functional now– but its little projects like this that tend to skyrocket the asking price for a home– and I would rather do this to what Lili and I want.View from the Master Bedroom of the yard. Hot tub is located below.